This is Why I Keep Coming Back to Sri Lanka
this is it yeah what the heck is this someone gave me change with this oh this one's stuffed I become a machang clutch feels nice I like it I'll take it Sri Lanka is it just holds such a special place in my heart I've been talking about this for years I've never actually done it but I would love to host my own trip and I think doing my first group trip here in Sri Lanka just makes the most sense I'm back oh boy it feels so good to be back in Sri Lanka I love this country it's been a year since I've been here and I have a very exciting trip planned actually I have almost nothing planned I just have time I'll be here for almost a month and I will be once again driving myself around in a tuk tuk by myself solo travel so I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens I'm not really sure what's going to happen but I'm going to bring you along for this adventure right now I am going to go to the tuk tuk rental office to go pick up my tuk tuk so I want to bring you along for that experience but first I want to get just like a little little snack here in Sri Lanka they have what they call short eats like roadside quick snacks and I really miss it and I really want to go get some so let's go see where we can find some short eats I was over here last year and I met the guy who owns this store 9 Eleven not open right now but hello oh look at that tuk tuk rental that's actually where I'm going maybe we should get some food here They got roti over here these are these are great these are my favorite can I have one One Piece One Piece please what's inside this Samosa egg Samosa cool how much for one 100 okay Boom got one Samosa check this out right here oh this one's stuffed ooh this one's still warm and fresh sometimes you go to a place and they've been sitting out all day but it's still early right now so this is fresh I've come to this place before like every year I usually if I'm in a Negombo I come to this place it's called food corner right next to 9 Eleven Supermarket great place if you want like a little local taste I recommend coming here Mmmm that's an egg some Curry inside potato yum all right now we need to get a ride so there are a couple different apps you can use here to call rides but we are on a pretty popular tourist road right now and there are a lot of tuk tuk drivers who offer their services I just looked up the place I want to go it's about 20 minutes away from here on the app I can get it for about 600 rupees let's see how much uh local tuk tuk driver will ask for you have a tuk tuk okay I need to go to Katunayake Katunayake which place sir uh I have a location I'll show you so you know the place how much for a ride there uh give me 1,500 I just looked on Pick Me it was only 600 I'll give you 1,000 I can get Pick Me me right now for 600 1,200 how much 1,200 1,200 yeah okay fine just because I like your smile what is your name my name is what Pretik nice to meet you I'm Steve this is a tuk tuk this is what I will be driving around Sri Lanka from I'm from USA USA yeah are you're from here in the Negombo yeah this thing is delicious I come back to Sri Lanka every year and I love it one of my favorite countries mostly because of the people you're so friendly I love people of Sri Lanka and the nature is incredibly beautiful okay this is good here here you go thank you all right we have made it to the tuk tuk rental office what's this it's not good is this a fake one what is this I thought it look weird look weird okay hold on let me get another one hold that just hold it for one minute this is it yeah okay what the heck is this someone gave me change with this he says it's it's fake not real what all right well now I have a souvenir thank you thank you so okay so we have made it to the tuk tuk rental office wow this is actually so much bigger now travel like a local support the community awesome this is so much bigger every every time I come here the office grows so much they have a freaking van now yeah it's it's it's amazing to see how much this company has grown and I want to talk more about why I love Tuk Tuk Rental so much in a little bit but first let's go inside and see this operation oh my goodness they they have all this property now too when when I was here last year they they did not have this and then over here is one of the offices and over there is like the main part of the office so let's go inside let's go see who's working here today we're going to pick up our Tuk Tuk welcome to the tuk tuk rental office look who it is am how are you so good to see you what's up I come to pick up a tikure yeah hello how are you hi it's ni to meet you and nice to see you finally yeah nice to meet you I'm Steve Hello nice to meet you you know just putting your videos for all the customers yeah uh I come to pick up a tuk tuk Yes we have your drivers permit and I know you don't have driving lesson so Emi will do the bringing in how are you how are you good to see you yeah how are you K I'm great how are you thank you I come just to see you yeah thank you driving lesson driving lesson I give you a driving lesson you came today yeah I just arrived last night oh really yeah so I will spend the next few weeks driving one of these tuk tuks why you don't come to the tournament I was in the tournament in Cambodia yeah so I I missed this one but now I'm here yes for two weeks yeah for almost 3 weeks okay nice You're from the video yeah it's me I hope you learned something cool good luck out there hey what's up bud I'm content creator all right content creator very cool nice to meet you yeah first time yeah yeah yeah yeah how's work been here um really good I'm enjoying it so it's almost 1 year for me now so wow congrats excited to put a long journey too you recommend this one yeah yeah let me sit inside let's see if it feels like home yeah got a phone right in the middle here cool all right this could this is my new home well not really home but clutch feels nice I like it I'll take it test driving go on a test drive sure got it woohoo test drive so I'm out here taking the tuk tuk for a test drive which by the way it is so smooth this one's this is a good vehicle and now they all are like the mechanic team is amazing now anyway I just want before I head back to the office I want to talk a little bit about why I love this company so much tuuk rental.com is incredible I first came to Sri Lanka in 2019 and I connected with the team just because I wanted this experience I wanted to drive a tuk tuk around and it was amazing I ended up coming back later that year like 6 months later for the Tuk Tuk Tournament which is a big 10-day travel adventure I've made videos about it if you haven't heard of it you could go check that out but really exciting event and and in 2019 I ended up coming like a month before the tournament and I was staying in the office they had some accommodation in the office it wasn't this office it was on the other side of the city uh it was a smaller office much smaller team and I just really fell in love with this company and the mission of what they do so tuktukrental.com was founded as a social business so they the company itself does not actually own these Tuk Tuk although they could like they have the means they could just tuk tuks but the reason they don't own the Tuk Tuks is because they have local people local families own these Tuk Tuk and the tuktukrental.com company they just handle all of the logistics of making it very easy for foreigners to drive themselves and the reason it benefits local families because it gives money back to locals actually over the past few years they've raised over $2 million that has been given back to local people and benefited local families and that's not rupes that's $2 million USD like that's that's not Pocket Change like we're talking about a lot of money that has been given back to support local communities so if you are watching this right now and you have any interest in coming to Sri Lanka I highly recommend considering get getting a tuk tuk and driving yourself around it's the best way to travel around this country and I do have a little discount code so you can get a discount and just a little transparency here I do receive commission every time someone uses my discount code but moving forward I'm not going to keep any of that money I've decided that I want to use all of the money generated from my link to give back to local people as I travel and I want to make more of an impact and just help as many people as I possibly can and have some ideas for videos I can make as I travel around where I can use some of the resources that I've been blessed with that I can help others and uh just try and do good out here and support local communities because Sri Lanka is it just holds such a special place in my heart and mostly because of the people like the nature is incredibly beautiful the it's just so easy so fun to travel around but really the thing that makes it so special for me is the people hello hi hi like these people it's so friendly so many Smiles all right sorry I think I might be in the way over here I should probably move I'm just like I pull down this side street and uh it's really narrow uh yeah I'm excited to take you along on these Adventures I don't have anything planned at all I actually only have accommodation booked tonight and then nothing else is planned hi everyone who who walks by or Drives By they all smile they all wave such a friendly place around here uh yeah so I have no idea where we're going I have an idea of where I'm going to go but I don't have anything fully confirmed yet so taking you along for these Adventures let's see what happens come along with me as we explore Sri Lanka and also side note uh one of the main reasons I'm here right now is because I really want to host a group trip I've been talking about this for years I've never actually done it but I would love to host my own trip and I think doing my first group trip here in Sri Lanka just makes the most sense I've spent a lot of time here and it's the country I know the best out of all the places I've traveled to and it's just very easy to travel and I want to bring a group and we all drive tuk tuks around so if you are interested and joining a group trip hosted by me then uh I don't even know what the call to action is message me on Instagram I will have uh maybe by the time you're watching this I'll have a website or more information will be in the description of this video but that's my goal is to travel around and plan a group trip so let's go have some fun so on the way here I tried to pay the tuk tuk driver and I I tried to give him this oh 2009 oh it's not that old yeah but he's a president that's why he's rejected oh really because of the president oh wow yeah the president's on it and now it's rejected so people don't accept this anymore because of the president yeah so old one thank you it's hers now and what's this x it's soldiers yeah yeah yeah it's pretty old I thought it looked different because I was looking at my money I was like that looks different it doesn't look like a normal thousand bill all right so they just offered me some lunch let's go see what's for lunch over here lunch time lunch this way okay hello little kitty on a chair ah Kitchen in here so another thing tuktukrental.com for provides to all the employees is lunch every day hello how are you fine I come to I come to have some lunch please can I have a plate oh perfect thank you that's good so what do we have for lunch today we have some dry fish day this is fish yeah dryish curry curry fish curry like fish curry of course yeah and this this is sweet potato sweet pot potatoes and green gram all right green gr green gram gram green grham yeah green color okay like a bean or something okay this Papa my favorite coconut coconut sambar chili chili are you the chef yeah all right what's your namea fona nice to meet you Steve Steve so when previously spent time with the Tuk Tok rental team lunch was always provided for everyone working here but usually people went out and bought lunch from a local restaurant and brought it back rice and Curry but now we have an in-house Chef so you work here every day yeah wow and you make lunch every day that's amazing he's making me an egg too I get special service wow yeah fried egg my favorite so this is a typical lunch here rice and Curry let's go eat with the team so here in Sri Lanka the best way to eat you don't you don't have Fork a knife or spoon your hand use your hand that's the way we do it so we have some coconut sambba some what is this beans beans a green beans potatoes fish curry and I got a special treatment I got an egg on top but just like the locals teach me you kind of mix it with your hands take a couple things you your hand I wash my hands yeah you wash wash your hands first eat with your right hand not your left you take you make a little little platform like this this okay so this is a fork four fingers Fork makes sense four fingers fork and then your thumb is just a push like that right so here we go boom I become much on so just want to take you on a quick little tour of this office and actually some of it I haven't even seen updated since I was here last year but now the main entrance is from this way from the main road which is also another entrance parallel to this on the other side uh over here is where they keep all the tuk tuk that are being picked up and dropped off over here is one of the office buildings for the team and they're all inside working right now getting busy yeah so this this is all new from when I was here a lot more as an office in there operations team another office over in there over here is where all the customers hang out start their onboarding process they're dropping off some chairs over here and here we have you guys learning a lot yeah learning they're watching my video that I made this is where you watch the onboarding video enjoy this going to be a quiz so you better pay attention and hey over here we have another office you guys working hard okay cool and let's check out over here definitely recommend playing caram hello over here we have the mechanics and cleaning area hey this is where all the this is where all the tuk tuks get washed and this is where all the tuk tuks get their maintenance done mechanic's working right now hey these guys are responsible for making sure everything's safe out here you're doing a good job more maintenance being done done hey so every time you rent a tuk tuk before and after uh all the mechanics work to make sure it's good safe and ready to drive what's up brother how are you and this is also a new expansion from the last time I've been here and this is oh this is another office hey you guys got another office in here now Fleet office what it Fleet office fleet office what's up guys how you doing good how you this is cool there so much expansion since since I've been here how many uh how many vehicles you have in the fleet now 650 wow 850 by next month how many people are on the team here or around around all 110 over that damn well you're doing a great job thank you for everything you do damn so they said by next month there'll be 850 tuk tuks in the fleet and over 110 employees and here we go here's some of the fleet these are the tuk tuks that again are all owned by local people giving money back to the local communities and helping Travelers experience Sri Lanka in a very unique way there are so many tuk tuks around here this is crazy oh man it just makes me so happy so proud to see how much this company has been expanding I remember when there this was just a little baby and now it's growing up so well and since all these tuk tuk are owned by different people they're all unique they all have their own little special treat traits like this one has like professional WWE wrestlers all in here they're all all unique let's see this one's just got just a regular inside some of them have quirky things this one's got Sri Lanka tourism interior some of them have some have cool grips on the handles they're all they're all unique I love it this one's has look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better hell yeah I agree with that so I didn't I did not actually have to go through the full process of what the typical onboarding experience is um but usually what happens is you arrive here you you are connected with a driving instructor who gives you a driving lesson so they teach you everything you need to know which I didn't need to take a driving lesson because I'm a freaking Pro driver by now I've driven quite a bit so I think I know what I'm doing out here they also the company sets you up with a local license and insurance so you're totally legal and safe to drive out here the license is temporary if you have you don't even need an international driving permit uh if you do that's fine you can actually get a longer temporary license but as long as you have a regular driving license from your home country they can arrange a temporary license here that's active for it's valid for 6 months so pretty cool and that just comes as part of your booking and everything you need is here they just this tkt rental.com just makes it super easy to rent a tuk tuk drive yourself around they teach you
everything you need to know and then beyond that Beyond learning how to drive a tuk tuk they also provide a mobile application so you have access to a lot of resources and helpful tools to help plan your trip suggestions for places to visit fun things to do and also communication so you can see where other people who are driving tuk tuks are on the road and it's also very easy to contact customer service now I actually haven't even used the app yet because that's relatively new so last time I was here they did not have the app so I'm excited to dive in and see what that app is like oh I'm just so excited to be back here in Sri Lanka I freaking love it uhoh we got a birthday in the house we got a birthday cake time to sing it's our birthday well I know but we're here to celebrate looks like a nice cake she going to put his face in there okay happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday dear a happy birthday to you so this is a tradition they do here in Sri Lanka the birthday person cuts a piece and goes around and feeds everybody everyone shares the peace I love it this is a very Sri Lankan thing we don't do this in my country but I love it I want to bring this back to the States when it's my birthday at home on the knife I love it it's going around feeding everybody everyone takes a little bite oh the cherry on top nice I want to bring this tradition back home with me and I go home it's my birthday I'm going to cut a piece and everyone to take a little bite nice so let me ask you this is I see it's a tradition here in Sri Lanka to cut a piece and then feed everybody yeah why do you do this do you know it's it's like this is not a company this is like a family so treating everyone as a family so giving everyone Jesus the but why so I understand this is everyone feels like a family but even why do you do that with their family in the states we do not do this you know this I don't think this is a worldwide thing I've only seen this in Sri Lanka is it like good luck or something why that's just part of the culture part of the tradition it's not a traditional thing no it's not a traditional thing but it's yeah giving a pieces to everyone is uh solving our bonding things okay I like it it's really nice every time I've seen a birthday celebration in s Lan you people do that and it's like just like a bonding thing it's not so it's not like traditional Trad is it rather new like did you do that when you were a kid yeah yes TR like when you were young and you had a birthday you still did you we having something but it's not a traditional thing if we like can give it other way so you can skip I like it it's nice it's a nice thing cool chocolate my favorite it's good I just met them there three of them are from India their first time in Sri Lanka first time driving to tuk tuk they're super excited such nice people and their content creators as well really really cool have a good trip guys bye see you on the road
2025-02-15 09:41
